


Some Kind of Wonderful

by kisahawklin



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Community: sga_episodefic, Episode Related, Episode: s05e09 Tracker, F/M, Kissing, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-08
Updated: 2008-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:37:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kissing practice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Sheppard kicked back on his bed, crossing his arms behind his head. "Kissed her yet?" he asked.

"That’s a little personal, don’t you think?"

"Just trying to help," John answered, shrugging. "Ronon has, you know."

“He's _winning_ ," Rodney grumbled, standing up and beginning to pace the three steps from the door to the bed.

"Rodney, what did I say–"

"I know, I know, not a prize," Rodney waved his hand in Sheppard’s direction to head off _that_ subject. "This means I _have_ to kiss her after our next date."

John shrugged again, flipping a page of his magazine elaborately. "When’s that?"

_Flip._

"Tonight," Rodney answered. It was a coup: Jennifer’s only other night off this week was movie night, and no one missed movie night. He was certain that if she was going on a date with Ronon, he’d be able to keep an eye on them.

_Flip. Flip._

"What?" Rodney demanded, balling his fists so he didn’t reach out and rip the magazine out of Sheppard’s hands. "Out with it already."

"Nothing," Sheppard said, and if that was the best he could do for an innocent look, Rodney thought he might reconsider the invite to the weekly poker game Lorne and Chuck had put together.

"What, what, what?" Rodney groused, wishing he had lasers for eyes, so he could actually bore into Sheppard’s brain and figure out what was going on in there. "You’re supposed to be helping me, here!"

John raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. Who had that many ways to shrug, anyway?

"I heard a rumor," Sheppard said with a smirk. "About your…abilities."

"Now I know you’re lying," Rodney said, picking up his pacing again. "Katie would never have talked about it and I haven’t–" Rodney managed to stop his runaway mouth before it said anything too condemning.

"Cadman told me," Sheppard said, and his smirk settled into something like a fond smile. _Cadman_? Clearly Sheppard had no taste in women at all. It explained a lot.

"Well, I wouldn’t believe her, if I were you. She took over my body to kiss Katie herself."

Sheppard’s eyebrows rose, as if he had only just realized that it had been girl-on-girl action, even though Rodney had been in the middle. Pervert.

"She didn’t tell me that," Sheppard said seriously, but his grin made Rodney smile too.

"Then what?"

Sheppard looked at Rodney appraisingly. "She thought you were inexperienced. She, you know, picked it up."

"I’m not _that_ inexperienced," Rodney said, but a terrible thought occurred to him. "But what if Ronon’s a better kisser than I am?"

Sheppard laughed at that, shaking his head and flipping another page.

"No, seriously," Rodney started, and the thoughts kept coming. _What if he was an awful kisser and no one ever mentioned it? What if he never had a serious relationship because no one wanted to kiss him more than once? What if he lost Jennifer because Ronon could sweep her off her feet and he…_ "You have to tell me if I’m any good," he said, sitting on the foot of John’s bed. "Kiss me and tell me if I need to practice."

"What?!" John shouted, pulling his legs up and depositing them off the side of the bed, effectively putting three feet of space between them. "McKay–"

"Hear me out," Rodney said. Sheppard looked skeptical, but cocked his head to show he was listening. "You’ve kissed lots of women. You know what they like. You can tell me if I can sweep Jennifer off her feet. It’s like a…" Rodney rolled his hand, willing the right words to come to him. "It’s like a peer review! You know, like the team evaluations."

"It’s not like a _peer review_ , Rodney," John said, and Rodney could hear something else underlying the irritation. "I think you’ve conveniently missed the part where _I have to kiss you_ to accomplish this."

"Actually, I have to kiss you," Rodney said. "I mean, I’ll be initiating–"

" _We_ would have to kiss," John said over the babbling. "And do you really think there’s a ‘kisser’ and a ‘kissee’?"

Rodney deflated. He had thought the whole concept was pretty straightforward. Now he wasn’t so sure. He could feel his face heating up as the silence stretched out. "Never mind," Rodney said, standing and heading quickly for the door. "It was a terrible idea. I’ll just go–"

"Rodney," Sheppard said, and holy crap, how had he gotten to the door so quickly? "It’s okay, you just knocked me for a loop."

"No, it’s stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking, I should never have asked...I wasn’t thinking clearly."

"Rodney," Sheppard said again, and Rodney glanced at him. He looked uncomfortable, but not in an incipient homophobic freakout way. Rodney took a deep breath.

"Only if you’re really okay with it. I didn’t mean–"

"Rodney," Sheppard said with finality. Rodney turned to face Sheppard and took a step closer. John took a step back and then held; Rodney was pretty sure the wall at his back was the only reason for that. He put his hands up to touch Sheppard’s face, but that was so strange that he hesitated and lowered them again.

"You’re taller than me," Rodney complained, backing up a step. Something about this felt wrong, and he suddenly thought he ought to call it off and get out of here.

Sheppard crossed the room to his desk, shoving his neglected laptop to the side and hopping up, his legs dangling nearly to the floor. "How’s this?"

Rodney hesitated. "Better, I guess." He clenched his fists to keep from fidgeting. He could feel his nerves building like a kettle about to whistle. "Maybe I should ask someone else. I mean, you did tell me the last person you kissed was Larrin. Maybe you forgot –"

"Get over here," John said, "and stop reminding me exactly how long it’s been."

The low grumble in John’s voice was unlike anything Rodney had ever heard come out of his mouth, and considering he’d heard everything from drunken giggles to tortured screams, that was saying something. Rodney crossed the room and stepped up to the desk, between Sheppard’s legs. Sheppard looked up at him expectantly. He was worried, and his face must have shown it, because John tilted his head and looked at him with sympathy.

"Pretend I’m her, okay?"

Rodney nodded and put a hand on Sheppard’s cheek, watching John’s eyes close slowly. He leaned in and pressed their lips together as his own eyes slid shut, and it took a second before he could do more than register the differences between John and any woman he’d ever kissed. He smelled different, tasted different, _felt_ different, and it wasn’t just the stubble under his fingertips. He rubbed his thumb along the hollow of John’s cheek, and he instantly got the message and opened his mouth. Rodney had never kissed a woman who responded to him like that.

He flicked his tongue into John’s mouth and brought his left hand up to John’s bicep. He could feel the tension in John’s muscles and oddly, the contrast between the soft cotton of his t-shirt and the smooth coolness of his skin. John’s tongue met his and they circled for a while before Rodney realized he had somehow lost control of things, because John’s hands were on his neck, and he was repositioning Rodney’s head and _jesus_ , their mouths slotted together like a key in a lock.

Rodney was nothing if not a fast learner, so he took copious notes in the back of his mind, subtle things that felt like fire against his skin. John’s palm sliding down his neck to rest on his chest— _oh, that won’t work with Jennifer,_ he thought, and then changed his mind and labeled John an evil genius – and his lazy hide and seek attitude with his tongue. Rodney really liked that. He was totally going to use it on Keller.

"Ooh, that’s really great," Rodney said when John laved his lower lip. "Let me try that."

He leaned in to press their mouths back together, but John used the hand on his chest to keep him from connecting. He shoved Rodney back hard enough that he stumbled and nearly fell, then jumped off the desk like it had bit him in the ass.

"You’re fine," Sheppard said over his shoulder as he made a beeline for the door. "I forgot… something. I gotta go."

Rodney put a hand on his mouth and broke into a ridiculously wide grin. He was _definitely_ going to get the girl.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...the happy ending.

"She left me on the pier," Rodney said, entering without even chiming. He stopped short when he realized the lights were low and Sheppard was blinking at him from under his covers. "You went to bed?" Rodney asked, feeling oddly betrayed.

"I was _tired_ ," Sheppard said, rubbing his eyes and palming the lamp next to his bed. The room brightened and Sheppard sat up. "C’mere."

Rodney approached the bed slowly. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I forget this isn't your problem."

"Problem?" Sheppard asked, yanking on Rodney’s arm and forcing him to sit clumsily. "What problem? I thought you were all set with Keller."

"Apparently not," Rodney said, and damn it, he must have had too much wine with dinner, because he could feel his eyes prickling. "Maybe I'm supposed to be alone. I’m forty, already past my prime for having kids, and you know, there aren’t a lot of women who can appreciate–"

"Rodney."

"John, you know it’s true, don’t coddle me."

Sheppard closed his eyes and Rodney would have worried that he’d fallen back to sleep except for the small furrow between his eyebrows. "Is that what this is about?"

"Well, no. I mean, a little. Some." Rodney talked his way through his thoughts, feeling them shift under scrutiny like they were hiding something. "I don’t know. I’m sick of being lonely."

"I can see why Jennifer likes you."

The shock of Sheppard’s sarcasm was a slap in the face. Rodney stood up, determined to storm out, but Sheppard’s preternatural reflexes stymied him again. He was off the bed and blocking the door by the time Rodney had turned himself around.

"Hey," Sheppard said, putting up a hand to stop Rodney’s forward momentum. Rodney crossed his arms. "I’m _sorry_ ," Sheppard said, and Rodney rolled his eyes.

"We can figure this out," John said, and Rodney straightened up. Right, problem-solving. That he could do. "Tell me everything that happened."

Rodney nodded and started telling the story, slowly at first, and then rolling along as he remembered what a good time they had, and how his nerves hadn’t really bothered him. "And then I kissed her," Rodney said, blushing a little when he remembered her reaction.

"And?" John said. "She liked it?"

"She asked to go back to my place." Rodney had nearly forgotten that; he turned to Sheppard with a smug smile. "Guess my technique was just fine."

Sheppard looked a little green. _Fair enough_ , Rodney thought. He didn’t like to think about Sheppard’s sex life either. "And then?" John prompted. "Something happened between that and you storming in here."

"We cleaned up the blanket and–"

"You _what_?!" Sheppard said. "She wanted to jump you and you stopped to clean up?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Rodney asked. "Have sex with her on the pier?" He turned wide eyes on Sheppard when he realized what his answer would be. "Oh my god, you _would_!"

"Better than _cleaning up_ ," Sheppard snarled. "Don’t you know better than to let a woman cool off?"

Rodney looked away. "No."

"What do you mean, ‘no’?"

Rodney glanced back at Sheppard who was currently sporting a look of utter gobsmackedness. "That sort of thing doesn’t happen to me often. Or ever."

A flash of something – _pity_ Rodney’s brain supplied, though he had no way of knowing that for sure – crossed Sheppard’s face before it locked down tight. "All right," Sheppard said, his tone all business. "What did you say to her to make her leave you on the pier?"

"I told her I kissed you, and she went ballistic."

"You just told her," Sheppard said, looking a little green again. "Like, ‘by the way, I learned everything I know about kissing from John Sheppard.’"

"Of course not – and that’s pretty arrogant. I only stole a couple of your tricks."

Sheppard smirked a little and Rodney rolled his eyes. "Which ones?" John asked, and _there_ , that was the reaction Rodney had expected from this whole misadventure – that lascivious leer. "This one?" John asked, and put a hand on Rodney’s neck.

"Um," Rodney said, closing his eyes to imagine his kiss with Jennifer. "Yes, that one."

"And this?" John trailed his hand down to rest on Rodney’s chest.

"Yes," he said, noticing the same fiery trails as last time. He wondered if Jennifer had felt that, if his palm felt like it might melt right through to her heart.

"How about this?" Sheppard whispered, cupping his other hand around Rodney’s neck and drawing Rodney’s mouth to his. Rodney felt John’s thumb against his cheek, and immediately opened his mouth to let John in. He brought his own hands up to John’s face and tilted his head to the perfect angle, the one that felt like John was going to fall into him.

John hummed into the kiss, making Rodney’s lips tingle. Rodney pulled back and stared at him. "You didn’t show me that one."

John shrugged and smiled at him. "Had to save something for the encore," he said, and tugged on Rodney’s neck, trying to pull him back. When Rodney hesitated, John put both hands on Rodney’s neck and plastered his entire body to Rodney’s. That wasn’t something Rodney was ever going to use; you had to have Sheppard’s weird slinky grace to manage it.

Rodney rested one of his hands on John’s hip, and snaked the other up John’s back, pressing between his shoulder blades to force John closer.

"That’s a nice move," John sighed, dropping his head and nuzzling at Rodney’s throat. Rodney stiffened.

"John."

"Rodney," John answered, pressing a kiss into the notch where his collarbones met. A swipe of his tongue made Rodney’s stomach dive for the floor, and he needed to stop this _right now_ because he didn’t even have anyone to use this stuff on anymore.

"John," Rodney said, grabbing Sheppard’s biceps and holding him at arms’ length. "While I appreciate the… uh…offer, there’s no point. Jennifer said she wouldn’t see me again."

"This isn’t for Jennifer," John said, doing a smooth twisting move to make Rodney release one of his arms before stepping back in. "This is for you."

"You know someone else who’s interested in me?" Rodney asked, and even though he should have been pissed at Sheppard for keeping the information from him, he couldn’t help the hope that rose in his chest. "Is it Davidson in Biology? I thought I saw her–"

"It’s not Davidson."

Before Rodney could ask about someone else, John had his hands on Rodney’s face and was pulling him forward to slide their mouths together. Rodney started taking notes again; who was he to turn down Sheppard’s help? _Christ_ John was good at this.

Rodney was used to processing two or three or four data streams at once, but trying to catalog Sheppard’s kisses was like trying to count grains of sand as they fell through your fingers. One of his hands never wavered from Rodney’s face – a ground for everything else. His other hand traced Rodney’s ear, his neck, his shoulder. He could taste Sheppard on his tongue, feel Sheppard’s arms and chest shift under his palm and when had he put his hands back on John?

When sensation threatened to overwhelm him, he took a step back. His heart was beating its way up his throat, trying to choke him, and he had to get away from John _right that instant_ or he was going to do something completely unforgiveable.

"Thanks for the…uh, help," Rodney said, wiping his mouth with his fingers, "but I don’t think I’ll be kissing anyone else for a while, and…"

Sheppard’s hands were on Rodney’s face and arm, and Sheppard’s body was about three inches from his, and Rodney had never felt so claustrophobic in his life. John didn’t let go, and Rodney started to panic when he realized Sheppard was leaning in again. "No, Sheppard, really–"

John took Rodney’s lower lip between his own and Rodney’s brain went completely blank. How was he supposed to be able to think when Sheppard assaulted his entire body when he kissed? One of John’s hands had moved to his neck, a warm weight holding him in place and the other rested on Rodney’s hip, thumb stroking the skin underneath Rodney’s shirt.

This was too much, he’d never remember it all, and god knew when he’d even have a chance to try it out anyway. "John," Rodney said, and tried to pull back again. "Please. I get it, you’re a great kisser and I’m a lousy kissee, I’ll never be able to do this."

"You _are_ doing this, Rodney."

"Well, yes," Rodney said, and he’d never understand why John deliberately played dumb. It was so unattractive. "But I’ll never be able to test it out on someone willing to see if she’ll ask me to go back to her room."

"Hey Rodney," John said softly, rubbing a thumb across Rodney’s jaw, "wanna go back to my room?"

Rodney blanked, staring at John’s wet mouth for a long moment while the pieces fell into place. "Yeah," he said, crossing the narrow space between them. "Yeah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I was asked for a happy ending, and I don't mind obliging. There were many incarnations of this; it was taking too long to finish, so I finally decided to just leave it here. Beta by the super-awesome [](http://the-wanlorn.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**the_wanlorn**](http://the-wanlorn.dreamwidth.org/). All remaining errors my own.

**Author's Note:**

> My first McShep episode cap! I can’t believe it took this long. I think it had something to do with the fact that John looked like a kicked puppy when he found out that Rodney was going to spend his day off with Jennifer. Thanks a bazillion to the lovely [](http://winged.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**winged**](http://winged.dreamwidth.org/) for betaing thoroughly and quickly. All remaining errors mine. For a bit of reference, [here is the kissing scene I totally cribbed.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhzEzaYXxdo) Episode cap of 5.09 Tracker, for the [Season 5 tagathon](http://community.livejournal.com/sga_episodefic/tag/!tagathon) at [sga_episodefic](community.livejournal.com/sga_episodefic).


End file.
